


Love and Chaos and Dinosaurs

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Chaos, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 22:17:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21381493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: After meeting with Hammond, Ian tries to marshal his thoughts before going after Sarah
Relationships: Sarah Harding/Ian Malcolm
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Love and Chaos and Dinosaurs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [UrbanAmazon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UrbanAmazon/gifts).

> Thanks to my beta, CG.

_He should have known_, Ian thought as he hailed a cab to the warehouse address in Hammond’s files. Should have known that she would volunteer for this insane project. Hell, he should have known that she would seek out Hammond herself; she probably suggested the whole thing! That would be just like Sarah.

Sarah was the one that had spent her life studying predators in Africa and Asia and putting herself into deadly situations just to show how their family units interacted. (According to her sister that was due to their own dysfunctional family unit, but Ian preferred to think of it as a product of Sarah’s compassionate nature.) Sarah was the one who had heard hints about a dinosaur island (Ellie and Alan had kept to their confidentiality agreements, but some of the scientists and handlers who evacuated before the storm hadn’t been so careful) and immediately started writing a thesis about how predator familiar bonds could apply to dinosaurs.

Sarah was the one who had flown all the way to Costa Rica to track down the hospital where they had first stayed, determined to prove that ‘the people who had escaped from the dinosaurs’ really did exist. She was the one who had sought out Ian after his book was published to tell him “I believe you”. She was the one who had listened to all of his stories, and those of Ellie and Alan, and had incorporated them into her budding theories. Sarah was the one who was fully intending to publish an analysis of dinosaur habits, risking her own professional career, based solely on Ian’s jumbled memories.

Of course Sarah would be talking to Hammond. Of course Sarah would jump to volunteer or even _suggest_ a trip to the second island. Why wouldn’t she? She wasn’t the one who woke up sweating every other night, hearing the bugling roar of a T-Rex echoing in his empty apartment.

Sarah was chaos personified in that sense, utterly unpredictable to him despite years of dedicated study, able to befuddle his mind until things that should have been anticipated just slipped through the mists. She was chaos beyond what even a Chaostician like himself could handle.

Some days he really wanted to make a kid with her, to see what kind of chaos squared a mini-Sarah would be. Other days he dreaded the thought; there didn’t seem to be enough of him to keep up with one Sarah, let alone two. This was turning into the latter kind of day, and Ian tried to refrain from muttering more epithets against Hammond. After all, if Hammond hadn’t talked him into evaluating that crazy park, Sarah would never have found him. And if Ian hadn’t started to lose faith in his work after that Ludlow prick made him out to be crazy, Sarah never could have rekindled his interest. That was how the unexpected happened.

But what shouldn’t have been unexpected was hearing that Sarah went down to that death-trap. No, Ian should have guessed her name the second Hammond mentioned a paleontologist, even if that wasn’t technically Sarah’s doctorate field.

Ian glanced down at the files in his lap. Hammond said that she was already down there, but the files showed that the rest of the crew wasn’t expected to leave for three days. Ian had no idea why he had been brought in now. Either Hammond thought he would need three days to convince Ian to go, or he thought that the others could delay him long enough for Sarah to complete whatever foolish observations she wanted to do alone. He’d just talked to Sarah last week; why hadn’t she said anything? Clearly Hammond knew he needed to send Sarah and the others a week ago, but why wait until now to contact Ian?

Or maybe something had changed his plans; moved up his timetable. Maybe that meeting with Ludlow and the board-

Shoot! Plans! Ian slammed his fist into his forehead, ignoring the questioning noise from the cabbie. Vanessa had left him a message two days ago that she was heading to Paris tomorrow; he was expected to take Kelly this afternoon; she’d be with him for a week, at least. There was no way he could take Kelly to an island full of dinosaurs. But there was no one else she could stay with, with Sarah also gone…

_Chaos._

Ian stared out the window, hoping for some inspiration. The sight of a woman with red hair almost derailed him into spiraling thoughts about Sarah, but the two girls behind her gave him an iota of inspiration.

Maybe... maybe Karen could take her for the weekend. Kelly enjoyed visiting with her half-sister, usually. If Karen could take care of Kelly for the weekend, then she wouldn’t have to miss school. Ian should be back in a few days, maybe a week if Sarah was a little hard to find… he refused to speculate that she wouldn’t be alive…

No, Kelly could go to Karen’s, and Ian would do something nice for both of them once he was back from Hammond’s latest disaster. He’d buy Karen some nice flowers or something, and he’d take Kelly to a- to a- something gymnastics. There had to be a museum or s-something they could visit. He’d make it up to them both. He should really spend more time with Julie too, come to that. It was hard to connect to high schoolers, but he’d find something. Maybe she liked gymnastics too? Karen could tell him.

But first he had to go find Sarah. Sarah who had willingly shipped herself out to an island full of dinosaurs. And admittedly Ian had done the same thing four years ago, but that was before he knew exactly how wrong it could go. That was when there were reassurances about containment and fences and “no expense spared.” That was when he was picturing beasts the size of dogs and cows; plant-eaters safely boxed in. Before he saw Hammond’s absolutely lethal levels of stupidity and monsters the size of apartment buildings. Before he’d had his leg clawed up; seen people ripped apart; watched the terror in those kids’ eyes on the chopper back.

Clearly Ian hadn’t done a good enough job of explaining it to her if Sarah had volunteered to go to one of those god-forsaken islands. He had done his best to temper her excitement over seeing real live dinosaurs with the terror and the screaming and the pain, but it hadn’t been enough. She had gone anyway.

Ian felt like his brain was going to squish out of his ears as it tried to go in several directions at once. This was what love and parenthood and dinosaurs and John _freaking_ Hammond did to a person.

No, Ian had to find a way to get the rest of Hammond’s team to hustle their butts and move out _now_, and he had to find somewhere for Kelly to go, and then he had to rescue Sarah from her own foolhardiness. Even if that meant going back to a nightmare he’d sworn never to return to.

Ian returning to Jurassic Park; now there was something even a student of chaos couldn’t have predicted.


End file.
